Cup magic was conspicuous by its absence here, unless you count Mario Balotelli making the dreams of the 17-year-old substitute Marcos Lopes come true in stoppage time. Many were streaming for the exits by then, others must have been in danger of dozing off. Manchester City neutralised Watford's challenge with two first-half goals, and the underdogs never looked like biting back in a soporific second half.

"Scoring a second at the end of the first half knocked the stuffing out of them," the City assistant coach, David Platt, said. "We were always in control after that."

It is easy to see why Watford are going so well in the Championship. As might be expected of a Gianfranco Zola team, they have some lively attackers and ideas. Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany had their hands full with Matej Vydra, who embarrassed the City central defenders for pace in the opening few minutes. Trying to play on the break only resulted in the visitors finding themselves pushed on to the back foot, however, allowing City to keep rolling forward.

David Silva and James Milner made all sorts of passing triangles around Daniel Pudil in the first half, yet all they had to show for their enterprise was a succession of corners. Milner in particular was wasteful with his crossing, and after tiring of waiting in vain in the middle for final balls that never arrived Carlos Tevez took matters into his own hands midway through the first half. Fouled outside the area by John Eustace, Tevez took the free-kick and arrowed an unstoppable shot through the wall and beyond Jon Bond.

It was a goal that had been coming.Almost all the action had taken place around the Watford goalmouth, yet within seconds of going behind Zola's side had a glorious chance to get back on terms. This time it was Fernando Forestieri racing free through the middle with City's defenders trailing yards behind, but having sprung the offside trap to put himself one on one with Costel Pantilimon, the eventual shot lacked conviction, the goalkeeper saved and any chance of an upset was lost.

"We didn't take our chances as well as we usually do," Zola said. "I'm not saying we could have won the game, we were playing the champions minus Joe Hart after all, but we could have made it closer."

City continued to squeeze Watford for the rest of the first half, until a switch of wings worked wonders for Milner's accuracy, and a cross from the left byline was firmly headed home by Gareth Barry.

City's high line was breached again at the start of the second half. With more composure Troy Deeney could have pulled a goal back but a heavy touch showed too much of the ball to the goalkeeper. By the hour stage, with Tevez still failing to reach Milner crosses at the other end, the home fans were amusing themselves with their Poznan dance, the one that involves turning their backs on the action and in this case not missing much.

There was only one thing now that would regain the crowd's attention and Balotelli duly came on for the last 20 minutes, exchanging a joke with Zola on the way out and forcing a save from Bond with his first touch. For good measure Roberto Mancini sent out Scott Sinclair too, perhaps hoping to demonstrate the midweek training ground ructions had been overplayed. Balotelli missed his best chance from a Silva cross and was pulled up for a couple of fouls when attempting to help out in defence, before producing a shot that Bond could only push out to Lopes. The Portugal-qualified Brazilian has become one of City's youngest scorers after playing five minutes of competitive football. Balotelli should take note. He might have 100 more chances but he will need to sharpen up to take any.